Proposal: Ryan Reaves for Vincent Desharnais?

No thank you. Leafs have quite a few 6/7 D men and already have Haakanpa about to return (maybe not?). Reaves can be buried too as others have mentioned
 
Leafs say no.

Desharnais is a dime a dozen player.

Reaves is definitely not the player he used to be but he still bring an intimidating factor.
 
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He’s been a giant #2 for Vancouver all year long.
It's almost too bad for him. I mean, I'm glad he got this payday, as it's likely the last one he will get, but he could have probably had a few extra years being a useful NHL defenseman in the role best suited for him, if he had taken an appropriate payday to do so. He could be a good #7, and was a competent #6 for the Oilers during the regular season. Can't blame the guy for taking the pay day though. I just laugh that it was the Nucks who gave it to him. He wasn't exactly a world beater when he played them in the playoffs.
 
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...there are a number of AHL teams in which Desharnais wouldn't be their #5...the guy makes terrible defenseman look not terrible, as Unger would say... 🤣
Desharnais' skill set isn't conducive to being a top pair defenseman in any league really. Not a pro league anyway. He isn't a good enough puck mover for that, even to be a defensive defenseman. He's absolutely a crease clearing, penalty killing specialist. He got lucky that the organization he was in was desperate for a pk specialist and needed to roll the dice on trying him out. He did really well in that role, but he's being exposed now that he's on a team that isn't playing very well and doesn't have a really good defenseman to partner with and make him look better than he is.
 
Desharnais' skill set isn't conducive to being a top pair defenseman in any league really. Not a pro league anyway. He isn't a good enough puck mover for that, even to be a defensive defenseman. He's absolutely a crease clearing, penalty killing specialist. He got lucky that the organization he was in was desperate for a pk specialist and needed to roll the dice on trying him out. He did really well in that role, but he's being exposed now that he's on a team that isn't playing very well and doesn't have a really good defenseman to partner with and make him look better than he is.

...he's a pro hockey player because he's huge, that's it...his skill level is extraordinarily low, like '80's Goon-level...
 
...he's a pro hockey player because he's huge, that's it...his skill level is extraordinarily low, like '80's Goon-level...
It takes more than size to make the NHL, even as a marginal player, but without it, he wouldn't be an NHL player. He is an NHL player because he figured out how to use his size to be effective in very specific situations, and his organization was desperate for a player with his exact skill set.
 
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